I've commuted on Amtrak quite a bit - sac to bay area... And I have looked into using them even more - but their is a litany of reasons why its impractical: T

I've commuted on Amtrak quite a bit - sac to bay area... And I have looked into using them even more - but their is a litany of reasons why its impractical: THeir ticket prices, staffing, schedules, lack of full-through-connection services, and delays all but make it hard to use as a service for all but one specific type of commuter. Lets look at staffing. They will know that its the commute hour; yet they will schedule ONE ticket agent at the counter in a major station - who has no incentive to be efficient with their tasks, and have made myself and MANY others miss the trains they were trying to get to. When you complain to the staff, they immediately take an attitude. Once when I asked why they only had one ticket teller during the major rush hour, the ticket teller didnt answer me, but called the Amtrak police to come question me. (I was being polite - and asked matter-of-fact why they would make such an oversight.) Pricing: The tickets are way over priced for the service. Also, lets look at the "rewards" benefit - and the "10-pass" packets. 1) The rewards - it costs $19 to go from Sac to Martinez. You get (2) reward points per dollar you spend. For that same $19 leg to redeem points for a "free" ticket costs 900 points. -- That means you have to spend $450 to get ONE $19 reward. 2) A 10 pack ticket expires after 45 days. No matter what. Last holiday season - with validations, office shutdowns, holidays etc - there was no way to use the tickets I had until after the new year - yet they would "expire" on 12/31 - no matter what. Their rewards points often fail to show up on your account - and its a tedious process to rectify - and even when you do rectify, it take more than 3-weeks for them to hit your account. The pricing to go any distance, is just absolutely too high. Now, the good things about Amtrak: They have power, wifi and a snack car. The cars are clean (generally), and the ride is smooth - and actually faster than driving (more relaxing at least) along 80. --- I really want Amtrak to succeed - but I wish they would address the problems they do have.